"Shows like ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew" and Oxygen's "Dance Your Ass Off" are drawing millions of viewers and helping expose audiences to the art of dance."
"Merce Cunningham, the American choreographer who was among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater, died Sunday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.
"Oddly, one of the weekend's best dance performances came from an actress who barely moved. In 'Cover Me With Humanness,' Gwen Grastorf portrays Degas' iconic statue the 'Little Dancer.' The play is about, among other things, what compels people to watch dance."
"The six featured artists added up to a superior buffet, though it was clear that you might want to skip one or two items if you came back for a second helping. The performers mingled premieres with repertory and reconsiderations, live action with film."
"Though the phenomenon feels new, it is of course part of one of the oldest trends in human history. People have been congregating to dance since civilization began. The digital means of dissemination are recent, but the act itself is as ancient as eating and sleeping."
"It boasts a good, fresh lineup that showcases quality artists who represent the richness that is Bay Area dance. Including world premieres by experienced artists is always a good programming decision, and these are judiciously chosen."
"The summer calendar has been marked for dancing since 1933 when American dance pioneer Ted Shawn and his company of Men Dancers gave their first performances at Jacob's Pillow, his 163-acre farm in Becket, Mass."
"There's a certain unfettered joy, a cinematic moment when your dancing under the stars at Lincoln Center. The music is often timeless and the groups that attend come from various backgrounds and age groups. Its always a sizable, fervent crowd but never over-crowded."
"The National Endowment for the Arts announced 631 local arts groups have received direct grants totaling $29,775,000 as part of the American Economic Recovery & Reinvestment Act."
"I'm not saying you can't tweet a review. You can, and plenty of people do. I'm saying that tweeting a review in its entirety misses out on one of Twitter's major strengths: turning people on to something cool."
"Director Wim Wenders has stopped production on the planned 3D dance film 'Pina' following the death of the film's subject -- the legendary choreographer Pina Bausch."
"At 32, Cherkaoui is a rising star of European dance, and the fact that he agreed to collaborate with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet on his first piece for an American company, spending months on the process, is a major artistic coup for the bold young troupe."
"An ancient trade route has inspired the latest work by contemporary Chinese choreographer Shen Wei, whose company, Shen Wei Dance Arts, brings a trilogy of dances to the Lincoln Center Festival this summer."
"igel Lythgoe announced today that he is teaming up with director Adam Shankman, 'Dancing with the Stars' judge Carrie Ann Inaba and actress Katie Holmes to launch the Dizzy Feet Foundation, a foundation for the dance community that will provide scholarships and assistance to talented underserved youth."
"Pina Bausch, the German dancer and choreographer who died aged 68 on Tuesday, five days after being diagnosed with cancer, was the most influential figure in European contemporary dance for the past 30 years, creating a much-imitated fusion of radical theatre, surreal art, sexual drama and danced body language, known as Tanztheater."
"You can count on one hand the number of modern-dance-makers who have changed the landscape – and Pina Bausch was one of them. Even though she never created a style that could be taught in the classroom, as Martha Graham or Merce Cunningham did, her influence went far and deep."
"The festival, which will run from Sept. 22 through Oct. 3, will open with a Boston Ballet performance of Nijinsky’s 'Afternoon of a Faun,' originally created for the Ballets Russes at its Paris premiere."
"Online videos from around the world have begun pouring in showing people singing, dancing, crying, smiling and mourning a man who shared his great talent with the world."
"Creating iMixes is easy and it's a fun way to promote upcoming performances to the huge number of iPhone/iPod owners. In addition, through the widget, you can encourage fans and online supporters to embed the song list on their websites and blogs."
"What other city in the world has anything like the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival? Residents of the Bay Area perform the dances of their original cultures — from across the globe, styles with radically different purposes — to an audience that does not consist primarily of those already familiar with those forms."
"With the move to the Durham Performing Arts Center, the festival gets a major upgrade, but a budgetary crisis has forced the festival to cut a full week — and a quarter of its marquee mainstage productions — from its calendar."
"Dance is a living aspect of culture that, like spoken language, evolves and morphs over time, changing as culture changes. Without ever trumping the sheer joy of its enterprise, the festival is a living museum of dance."
"The arts are where hope lives. And right now, as the very tenets of civil society are being re-written, and as health and human service needs rise, there is legitimate concern about whether the arts will survive, how the arts can thrive."
"Celebrating the 'screendance' genre, the Dance Camera West festival kicks off this weekend with its eighth year of screenings. More than 30 films -- most made independently -- will be screened at half a dozen L.A. venues during the three-week fest."
"'Dancing Across Borders' is an 88-minute love letter to Cambodia, to ballet, and to hard work. Like every good love letter, it conveys the preciousness of the intangible."
"The awards, given by the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles, cite excellence in performance, choreography, design, music and other categories for L.A.-area dance presentations."
"After decades at Ballet Hispanico, the troupe's founder is hanging up her artistic director's hat. But only after her company makes its L.A. Music Center debut."
"The event, a street fair that embraces the sounds, colors and positive energy of its Latin America and Caribbean roots, drew tens of thousands of spectators, despite gray skies."
"This event is the product of an unusual collaboration between Brown and Cave, one that doesn't entail conversation but does fuse the two artists' work."
"The La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival is a three-plus week smorgasbord of samplers, wide-ranging in style as well as quality. While you sometimes hunger for a more rigorous curatorial eye, it is also nice to be surprised by the accidental synergy of shows..."
"William & Mary students, faculty and staff have broken the Guinness World Record for the most people doing the Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance simultaneously in one location."
"Do you have to grow up with gypsies to have the soul of a Gitano? Not necessarily. Look at Paco de Lucia—he didn’t grow up with it and look at the legacy he’s created in terms of the flamenco guitar. You just have to have a great love and respect for it and be able to feel it."
"Renowned choreographer Lin Hwai-min accepted a lifetime achievement award from the International Movimentos Dance Awards in Wolfsburg, Germany, Tuesday."
"Mr. Spalding is using the Wells, the Lilian Baylis Studio...and the Peacock Theater...to present dance of all species. Last week, while attending each of these theaters, I caught part of an annual hip-hop festival ('Breakin’ Convention,' at the Wells and the Baylis); a Cuban dance-and-music extravaganza ('Havana Rakatan,' at the Peacock); and an evening devoted to connections between American and British forms of step dancing."
"As the director Mr. Woetzel lands big names — Savion Glover, Edward Villella and his Miami City Ballet, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company — but aims for intimacy, inviting a few artists to talk as much as they perform."
"The sums at stake are comparatively small, but a contract dispute between a choreographer and the 92nd Street Y has caused a stir in the field — and provided a glimpse into the fraught relationship between struggling dance makers and presenters."
"The lights dimmed and I made my way upstage center and felt my back press against the wall. My leg lifted from the ground, foot flexed, and I walked forward as the first piano chord struck; everything that followed is a complete blur."
"Arts administrators say they are fighting a subsidiary effect of the recession, a creeping perception among their largest and most reliable corporate supporters that contributing to the arts is somehow elitist and excessive at a time of rising unemployment and general economic hardship."
"Officials hope to use culture and art to improve America's image by sending the dancers to countries - such as Venezuela, Nigeria and Brazil - where its reputation has suffered in recent years."
"When Corella left Madrid at age 19 in 1995 to join American Ballet Theatre, he quickly realized that he 'wanted to give dancers who left Spain an opportunity to come home and also create a company for pure, classical dance.'"
"The festival kicks off this weekend, offering free public events, including classes, rehearsals and performances, celebrating dance of every culture and genre."
"Not long after, her family was told the terrible news: Ms. Liu had severely injured her vertebra and was paralyzed below the waist. It was unlikely that she would ever walk or dance again."
"The answer to staying healthy and happy as you age may be as close as the nearest dance floor, according to a chorus of studies. Dancing offers mental, physical, and social benefits, while perhaps reducing the risk of illness and even counteracting the ravages of aging."
"Stepping to the sounds of old Mexico in native dress, dance troupe, the Ballet Folklorico 'Quetzalli' de Veracruz, can easily charm any crowd with their vibrant performances."
"Fifteen years after Michael Flatley and company burst onto the international stage at the Eurovision Song Contest, Bulgaria’s answer to 'Riverdance,' has reached American shores."
"As one of the UK's biggest Bollywood companies, Bollywood Grooves has seen demand increase hugely since its inception in 2000. They used to teach one weekly class of seven; now it is 15 classes of 25-30."
"Vilaro, who danced with Ballet Hispanico for ten years prior to his move to Chicago in 1996, will replace Tina Ramirez, the Founder and Artistic Director of Ballet Hispanico, who will step down after 38 years."
"On all fronts it was a reason for celebration as Luna Negra Dance Theater marked its 10th season Saturday night and, despite the arrival of a wintry spring storm, attracted a huge (bilingual) audience to the Harris Theater for Music and Dance."
"The Kennedy Center's wide-ranging Arab arts festival — with dance, drama, song, acrobatics, whirling dervishes, slapstick and hip-hop artists all offered in just the first of its three weeks — is a savory feast of performing arts from throughout the Arab-speaking world."
